Good job-looks great. I had similar problems in the back of my Trade Wind. I used body hammers and dollies because I had some sharp creases. Aluminum does not work like sheet metal and so you must be extremely careful not to stretch it and make it worse if one choses that route.

The dent popped right out but it has some memory. When I first removed the jack the deepest part of the dent went back indented. Maybe it's due to some stretch but when it's out, it's just about perfect from the outside. I hesitate to over jack it out. I'm leaving both jacks installed with medium pressure for a couple days, then I'll check the pop out.

I'm tempted to warm it with the heat gun but I won't until I get some lessons in aluminum dent de-memory.

I would think a bit of backing with fg would give it enough strength to retain the original shape? (I know you guys don't like f/g)
Another thing I have done on non aluminum projects is use a chuck of vinyl siding and construction glue to give extra strength. Might be worth a try.
Dave

Quote:

Originally Posted by Splitrock

The dent popped right out but it has some memory. When I first removed the jack the deepest part of the dent went back indented. Maybe it's due to some stretch but when it's out, it's just about perfect from the outside. I hesitate to over jack it out. I'm leaving both jacks installed with medium pressure for a couple days, then I'll check the pop out.

I'm tempted to warm it with the heat gun but I won't until I get some lessons in aluminum dent de-memory.

I'll add some heat to the area after I get some templac. I'm going to get the repair to sit flush by it's own motivation:-) Once I close this end back up, I don't want to mess with opening it up again.

From watching the aluminum auto body repair videos, the heat should set the metal. This is gonna be another notch in my skill level belt:-)